Vodafone Qatar maintained its strong financial performance in the first quarter of this year by posting a net profit of QR44mn, up 149% year-on-year and a total revenue of QR535mn.
The Q1 financial performance, Vodafone Qatar said “was led by a continued growth in its postpaid subscribers segment and expanding its cost optimisation programme.”
The total revenue for the three months that ended on March 31 (QR535mn) was driven by higher postpaid and fixed revenues, Vodafone said.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the period increased by 34% year-on-year to reach QR181mn, primarily due to higher revenue, lower costs and the application of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 16, re-classing long-term lease costs to below EBITDA. Consequently, EBITDA margin reached 33.8%. EBITDA excluding the IFRS 16 adjustment increased 17.9% or QR24mn year-on-year. The company’s Q1 net profit of QR44mn, represents a QR26mn year-on-year increase and the “highest” quarterly net profit in its history.
Reported mobile customers at 1.7mn, reflects a 334,000 increase year-on-year, due to strong postpaid subscriber growth and from the positive impact of changing the definition of prepaid subscribers to align with the International Telecommunications Union’s and Qatar Communication and Regulatory Authority’s definition.
Commenting on the first quarter results, Vodafone Qatar CEO Sheikh Hamad Abdulla Jassim al-Thani said, “The momentum gained in 2018 for delivering strong financial and operational performance has continued through to 2019’s first quarter. This clearly shows that we are executing on the Company’s solid strategy.
“We are committed to leading the delivery of innovation in Qatar by building a digital ecosystem fuelled by a state-of-the-art communications infrastructure that will benefit consumers and businesses alike.
“In addition to expanding our portfolio of services and enhancing our network, we are proudly marking major technological milestones for Vodafone and Qatar such as the first live 5G mobile call using a 5G handset in the region.
“Deployment of 5G and fibre continues and we have some exciting plans for maximising the new growth opportunities that both technologies will bring. We have completed fibre rollout in several strategic areas with customers there now actively using our various services. Moreover, we recently announced that 5G technology is commercially available to our customers with the launch of Vodafone GigaHome – the new home Internet solution.”
Sheikh Hamad: Executing the company’s solid strategy.
